The 489th Bombardment Squadron in Corsica

Some Pages From Quentin Kaiser's Logbook, Part 1

I have only copied the pages of my dad's logbook for his trip overseas and his combat missions. He started the trip to Corsica on April 28, 1944 from Savannah, Georgia in a B-25J with 647 being the last three digits of the planes serial #.

These pages document my dad's arrival on Corsica on May 16, 1944. "Norman Moerbe was our bombardier/ navigator. He was very fond of saying, "This is it!" whenever we saw any evidence of the war as we flew over to Europe. We all knew what he meant when we got out after landing at Alesan just three days after the big raid. That was the ultimate "This is it!" with all the wreckage spread out before us." My dad's first combat mission on May 18, 1944 is also recorded. The flight schedule, the operations order and the daily operations report for his first combat mission were copied by my father and I at the National Archives in College Park, MD on April, 12, 2001. Both the operation order and the daily operations report indicate an escort of 12 Spitfires for the mission but they do not give the group. Most likely these Spitfires were from the RAF No. 243 Squadron stationed at Poretta, Corsica since the logbook of a No. 243 Squadron Spitfire pilot named Payne, clearly shows a mission to the same target on the same date, referring to the escort as "area cover to B-25s."

Quentin Kaiser recorded in his mission log that they dropped propaganda leaflets on July 21, 1944 on his mission #18 to Bologna, Italy. He flew in B-25J 9F #43-4058 Stella that day. When we visited the archives at College Park, my dad and I discovered the Operations Order, the Flight Schedule and the Daily Operations Report for this mission. We also found an original copy of the propaganda leaflets that were dropped over German troop concentrations that day. My father saved this clipping from a 12th Army Air Force publication describing the 'psychological warfare' carried out by the 489th Bomb Squadron. He flew 3 missions in the plane shown in the clipping- B-25J 9W serial #43-27659 Morning Mission. Quentin Kaiser is on the left.